Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 71% (Critics) / 47% (Audience)
Directed By: Sofia Coppola
Written By: Sofia Coppola
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning and Chris Pontius
Studio: Focus Features

Synopsis: Roguish Hollywood star Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) finds his debauched life of excess unexpectedly interrupted when his 11-year-old daughter (Elle Fanning) shows up at the Chateau Marmont Hotel for an unscheduled visit. Later, as father and daughter reconnect, Johnny begins to reassess his sordid lifestyle. Writer/director Sofia Coppola teams with brother Roman to produce a film executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola, and released by Focus Features.
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The Good:
Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning have a great father/daughter chemistry and their scenes together made the film for me. Dorff was very convincing as a hedonist faced with the challenge of having to change his life to become the sole adult figure in his child’s life.
Individually the two actors both did wonders with their roles too.
Dorff conveyed the isolation and loneliness that a movie star feels even when surrounded by people and Fanning was exactly like every 11 year old I have ever met….all gawky and in constant fidgety movement.

The Bad:
Sofia Coppola’s direction was the height of pretension. The movie never actually felt like it was going anywhere and most of the scenes had a laconic, static vibe to them.

The Ugly:
What the hell was that ending? It was like something straight out of a film school mid-term project.

Final Verdict: The two principal performances and performers were stellar but the overall direction was so tedious and self-indulgent that at times it bordered on the unwatchable.  C-